Victor,

Has there been any thought in switching to RTF 1.9 instead of Word format? The latest RTF spec (1.91) supports images, foreign languages, equations, headers and footers and much more.

If I'm not mistaken, Axure currently scripts Word to generate output but moving to RTF 1.9 would negate the need for this and allow Axure to generate output directly - giving Axure much more control over how output is handled. I'm pretty sure all current versions of Word can read RTF 1.9 files if further editing is required but this would allow Axure to do such things as:

• Rich text for annotations
• Rich text for page notes
• Rich text for Masters and Widgets
• Improved table and image output in documents
• Conrol over headers and footers
• Template variables - e.g., revision #, author name(s), creation date, modified date, title, etc.
  
• Word independence! Axure could manage templates and output directly from the application so no specific version of Word would actually be required. 

Thoughts?

 

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Disclaimer: I am not an employee of Axure nor am I compensated by the company in any way, shape or form. Rather, I have a vested interest in its continued development as an avid user of the application on a daily-basis.

dingle:

Victor,

Has there been any thought in switching to RTF 1.9 instead of Word format? The latest RTF spec (1.91) supports images, foreign languages, equations, headers and footers and much more.

If I'm not mistaken, Axure currently scripts Word to generate output but moving to RTF 1.9 would negate the need for this and allow Axure to generate output directly - giving Axure much more control over how output is handled. I'm pretty sure all current versions of Word can read RTF 1.9 files if further editing is required but this would allow Axure to do such things as:

• Rich text for annotations
• Rich text for page notes
• Rich text for Masters and Widgets
• Improved table and image output in documents
• Conrol over headers and footers
• Template variables - e.g., revision #, author name(s), creation date, modified date, title, etc.
  
• Word independence! Axure could manage templates and output directly from the application so no specific version of Word would actually be required. 

Thoughts?

Hi dingle,

We haven't thought much about generating to RTF instead of Word yet. Thanks for suggesting it. HTML documentation has come up a few times. It's good to know that RTF supports all of those features.

The Word 2007 generator generates directly to the DOCX format and does not run Word in the background. That's how we were able to get it much faster than the Word 2000 generator. The DOCX format is supported in Word 2000+ with the compatibility pack, but it would be nice to have a Word-independent format as well.

If you want to add HTML documentation as an option in addition to the Word (or RTF) spec, fine, but I feel like I should chime in here. Having a spec we can version and get officially signed off is something we do for every project. Having a single file for this makes it a lot easier than it would be to upload a set of files and folders.

Thanks,
Jeff

Jeff Harrison:

If you want to add HTML documentation as an option in addition to the Word (or RTF) spec, fine, but I feel like I should chime in here. Having a spec we can version and get officially signed off is something we do for every project. Having a single file for this makes it a lot easier than it would be to upload a set of files and folders.

Thanks,
Jeff

Hi Jeff, I completely understand the need for single file documentation for sign off. I wouldn't replace the Word (or RTF) with HTML, but could see it being a useful additional output format.

victor:

Hi Jeff, I completely understand the need for single file documentation for sign off. I wouldn't replace the Word (or RTF) with HTML, but could see it being a useful additional output format.

When considering document options, definitely consider the OpenDocument Format (ODF)...numerous government agencies are making this a required option.  Also, Office 2007 SP2 now has built-in support for ODF 1.1 (so much for WordML). 

http://blogs.msdn.com/dmahugh/archive/2009/04/28/working-with-odf-in-word-2007-sp2.aspx 

Hi EricB, thank you very much. We will definitely keep that in mind.